Green Bench

The Green Bench

TThe Green Bench, my husband repaired and upcycled a bench for our garden. Using free materials he replaced the wood and painted it all green. It looks so pretty in our garden beneath the magonolia tree I decided to create a pastel artwork of it.

First of all I sat in the garden on a rather cold spring afternoon and made a charcoal study 'En plein air'. I took some referance photos and a couple of days later when the lighting was improved I took a few more.

I then worked on acrylic paper with an earth tone ground with pastels. Beginning with a plot drawing and outline based mostly on my original charcoal drawing I sketched out the main elements of the picture, taking note of perspective lines for the structure of the bench and board of the grass area.

Materials

Sketching

Charcoal, Putty Rubber and 170 gsm cartridge paper

Surface for Oil Pastel

Normally standard earth toned pastel paper with a good 'tooth' (textured paper) is used for pastels. However, I have a personal preferance for working on acrylic paper with an earth tone ground of to layers of raw sienna and/or burnt sienna. I simply prefer the texture of tooth of the this surface. That said, pastel papers are far more common place and these are great working on.

Referance Photo 1 taken on the day.

Referance Photo 2 on a day with better light.

Oil Pastels

I used a full spectrum of colours i.e Cadmium Yellow, Raw Sienna, Yellow Orcher, Burnt Umber, Ultramarine, Magenta, pink ,Colbalt blue, Olive green, Sap green, light green, Viridian Green etc... With Pastels the more colours you have to hand the better. That said, a limited palette can work well too, placing colours next to each other to create mixes.

Masking Tape

Low tac or cheap (ish) Masking Tap is good for taping your paper to a drawing board all the way around. This will help the ground dry back flat after the apllying layers and using a hairdryer to dry in between.

Drawing board

A lightwieght drawing board slightly bigger than A3 is great for a firm surface to work on and to tape your paper too.

Table Top / Portable Easel

Placing your board on your easel at a 45 degree angle to your profile is much better than working flat. Its better for your neck! and creating correct proportions and the using the pull of gravity for certain wet in wet techniques.

En Plein Air Charcoal Study of the Garden Youtube Video-

Play and pause to follow along. Remember you can slow down the speed by going to the settings in the youtube player.

En Plein Air Charcoal Study of the Garden

The Green Bench Youtube Video

Play and pause to follow along. Remember you can slow down the speed by going to the settings in the youtube player.